VR Serious Games Redefining Physical Therapy

The Virtual Reality Physiotherapy (VRP) Market
is expected to experience an exponential growth over the coming years.

Physiotherapy has become an integral part of
any rehabilitation process and awareness of the importance of Physiotherapy is
constantly increasing. More and more people are experiencing injuries due to
car accidents, sport accidents, working in front of computers, staring at
smartphones and more.

Physical therapy helps shorten hospital stays,
provides a cost-effective alternative to surgery and helps patients regain an
active daily life. Traditionally, therapies require repetitive, oftentimes
arduous verbal and tactile feedback from the clinician. Patients don’t want to
do their physical therapy exercises because they are either painful or
monotonous. In addition, many typical treatments also lack objective criteria
for measuring progress. The whole process can frustrate the patient and
therapist alike as they both struggle to measure the patient's ability in a
given task.

To meet the growing demand for rehabilitation
of these injuries, an increasing number of physical therapists are turning to
video game technology as a way of providing a more immersive and engaging
experience when performing physical therapy exercises. At the same time, this
solution would provide physical therapists with meaningful data and analysis,
enabling them to track a patient’s progress and utilize invaluable data and
insights to adjust the rehabilitation process according to each patient’s
needs.

Israeli start-up VRPhysio is at the forefront of harnessing gaming technology to help
treat neck, spinal and other injuries.

VRPhysio® is a virtual reality rehabilitation
platform for physical therapy that aims to provide a captivating experience for
patients of any age.

Designed to stimulate people to perform
specific movements while serving as an accurate tracking tool for physical
therapists, its VR games and interactive guides monitor patients through their
prescribed rehab or preventive exercises and measure their progress. Utilizing
real-time data analysis based on advanced algorithms, the program also generates
progress reports containing high-resolution metrics on improvement.

The Solution

VRPhysio’s solution combines a virtual
reality device consisting of a headset and optional compatible weights and biosensors with an app downloaded to
the user's smartphone. The smartphone is inserted into the headset and
is used as the device display.

The user experiences the training as a fun and
immersive game, through which he/she conducts the correct exercises planned by the
physiotherapist.

Remote data access allows the healthcare
professional to monitor user’s workout and change the gaming experience
according to the user’s needs and progress.

The first use of the VRPhysio® platform is in the clinic, and then after setting up his/her
program, the player is able to continue the rehabilitation at home using
their own smartphone and the VRPhysio
headset, all under the guidance and supervision of his/her healthcare
professional online.

Their first product – VRPhysio Neck – includes a series of cervical-spine exercises
suitable for physical rehabilitation treatment.

VRPhysio® Story

Eran Orr, the founder of VRPhysio®, is an ex-Israeli Air Force F16 pilot, with a BA in
Business Management, Government and Politics and an MBA in Entrepreneurship.

Eran’s personal story behind his idea of
combining Virtual Reality and Physical Therapy is truly inspirational.

After 12 years of serving as a pilot in the
Israeli Air-Force, as he finished a routine flight duty in his F-16 fighter jet
squadron, Eran began to experience a sharp pain in his right hand that radiated
to his neck caused by active flying. After some time, the pain had progressed to
the point where he couldn’t sleep or hold his child, and he was grounded from
active flight duty.

He was diagnosed with a herniated disk, a condition that could have been prevented by performing
frequent exercises.

After some investigation, Eran noticed that his
condition was common among many pilots in the air force, which made him wonder
whether there could be a solution to this common problem.

It was during the tireless hours of rehab that
Orr became the most frustrated.“During my rehabilitation process I discovered
that I couldn’t keep up with the neck physical therapy homework exercises, no
matter how motivated I was, and that my physical therapist had no way to
monitor or guide me once I left his clinic.

“When I tried convincing young IAF pilots to do preventative exercises it did
not work either.

“As a result of these personal experiences, I decided to connect physical
therapy and virtual reality technology, in a manner that will allow people do
preventative exercises or physical therapy exercises while playing enjoyable
games.”

The basic “hook” concept of the VRPhysio®
product, which becomes immediately apparent upon using it for the first time,
is that it makes the user feel that they are playing a game that they actually
enjoy rather than doing rehabilitation. The body motions that the various game
options require to play are actually programmed to replicate the exercise
regimen that has been prescribed for their rehab. Indeed, the beauty of the VR
platform is that it totally disconnects the patient from his or her
surroundings and exclusively focuses them on their rehabilitation exercises.

With 13 people, including 10 in Israel and
three in Boston, the company initially raised $750,000 in crowdfunding. They have
also become part of the Microsoft for Startups program called BizSpark.

Earlier this month, Joshua
Drew, Sr Technical Evangelist for Startups at Microsoft, posted an interesting
article to LinkedIn Pulse titled “Microsoft Working with Startups”, addressing
their collaboration. Here are the excerpts:

“For the past few months, I have been working
with a company called VRPhysio. They
are a data driven health company but specifically focusing on rehabilitation
health using a virtual reality device. They are part of the Microsoft for
Startups program called BizSpark and are able to take advantage of software and
services along with other cool collaboration opportunities like the one that presented
itself a few weeks ago”

“At our New England Research and Development
Center in Cambridge MA, the VRPhysio team set up shop for an all-day user
testing and feedback event for Microsoft and its employees. The goal was to not
only to introduce the product but to gain valuable insights from employees who
work at a desk for long hours. As you can imagine, the strain on the neck and
back can be tough at times and difficult to treat without a physician present. VRPhysio brings the treatment to the
office by providing virtual reality exercises to be performed during the course
of the day. The data that is gathered can be analyzed for user specific
treatment options at a later date.”

VRPhysio® is planned to launch its
products in selected clinics and elite sports teams in the Boston area – where
Orr is based – soon.